Education and education allied services, like International education advisory and prep, are businesses built on trust. Impressionable, young adults entrust you with their dreams, at a very crucial stage of their lives. The first thing that I said to my team when I acquired the business and began defining Inspirus almost a year ago was that “You are in the business of setting the future on course, you need to know every turn, every cross road ahead. Dreams might not always turn into fairytales but they certainly cannot end in nightmares.”
It is that passion, that honesty and that earnestness that anybody stepping into the education space must commit themselves to.
And in that commitment lies the greatest business truth too. Education allied entities cannot sell on an individualized USP. The only game changer in the space is “experience”. Word of mouth and repeat referrals are where 90% sales come from.
While nurturing young futures the greatest challenge lies in keeping a few steps ahead of them always. With a dynamic environment, it isn’t enough to keep abreast with changing international policies that impact students and placement opportunities. The challenge is to keep the students’ confidence in your abilities to identify their strengths and then guide and prepare them to achieve the perfect admit that fits their end goals.
As such my biggest investment is my team of teachers, counselors and content developers. This is a team that has the ability to put the student first. Who believe in increasing profitability by putting the child’s welfare before business. The team ensures each child gets focused attention at every stage, including staying in touch with students in the initial days in the new university.
Becoming an entrepreneur in the current environment in India seems easy. From positive policy interventions; encouraging tax laws to VCs and angel investors, we seem to have it all. But in the education space the big challenge is coming from scalability and sustainability. Weak IP laws and easy accessibility to the technology challenge the stickiness of these businesses. But building a strong network of best practices that define the service quality across branches and franchise partnerships can go a long way. Strong internal processes and checks ensure quality delivery is consistent and constant.
At Inspirus, we’ve tried to keep the focus on building a strong brand that goes beyond providing test-prep content. A brand that works with all stakeholders from students and parents to teachers and industry leaders. A brand that is youthful and agile in approach yet rooted and in-depth in know-how. A brand that can be established a thought leader in the space of International education advisory and prep.
Developing a brand for young adults in a technology enabled environment does make the task simpler and the reach faster and wider. It makes marketing direct, distinct and cost effective. While measuring ROI is made simpler by digital marketing tools that can track campaign performance on regular basis enabling quick action that can optimize effectiveness and minimize spends.
The way forward in today’s world is collaboration. Competitiveness is passé. Working together in the greater interest of the student is the only way forward as today there are several apps available which will help the student achieve his score and his choice of university. However, what can never be replaced is the human touch and the sensitivity with which each student has to be dealt with.
About the author:
Ms. Bakhtawar Krishnan, Founder, Director at Inspirus Education, India’s premier coaching and test preparation institute. When it comes to coaching for the SAT®, GRE®, GMAT® and other standardized tests, Inspirus is second to none
Ms. Bakhtawar Krishnan is an accomplished professional in the field of higher education related to the overseas study. She brings with her 30 years of diverse experience, both at the national and international levels, in different roles across industries. Over the last 5 years, she has carved a niche for herself and earned a solid reputation in the field of international education.
In her wide-ranging career, Bakhtawar has helped hundreds of students realize their dreams of studying in prestigious international universities. She has several stories of successful top placements to her credit, at the core of which lies her deep sense of love and commitment for students and an unflinching passion foreducation.
Bakhtawar believes in providing personalized student attention and actively engages with students to help them select the most appropriate university and courses, in line with their aspirations. Her innate ability to relate with students is supported by an enthusiastic and dedicated team of expert counselors and teachers at Inspirus. The unparalleled dedication of this team enables the highest quality of educational coaching and counseling to be imparted to students to enable them to realize their vision of an international education.
She recently bagged the award for Femina World Women Leadership Congress Award 2018
Challenges of Setting Up an Education Enterprise
